Inspiration and motivation

When I started this blog, I was wondering if I could keep the writing going. But there is so much to write about and to share…so here I am…writing blog #3 within one week.

In the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about what inspires me, and what motivates me to keep doing what I do behind the scenes. The first thing that came to mind is that it brings me energy. It simply doesn’t feel like work. But why? That’s not an easy question to answer, cause there are so many reasons why this brings me energy.

One of the reasons is the constant challenge to make things work. Like I wrote in my last blog, sometimes things turned out to be a waste of time and money, but that’s simply how it goes. You won’t know, until you’ve tried. The challenge is to come up with another idea, try something new and make it work. There’s not a handbook for musicians to find which tells you step by step what needs to be done to succeed. Of course there is a lot of information to find on the internet and some websites do have really good advice for musicians, but you will have to make your own plan and try things to see if it works. It’s a matter of not giving up. There have been numerous days when I didn’t feel confident that I could get things sorted or make things work. It’s how you deal with the disappointments and rejection. It’s a learning process. There never was a moment in the past few years that I thought about giving up though. Until now it’s always been two steps forward and one step back, followed by two steps forward, one step back and so on, that’s not bad at all! 😉

And there’s that thing that you just have to like challenges when you’re working with Robb Murphy. To give an example…(this is only one of the many examples I can give…) Robb came over for a tour for the first time. Getting a tour sorted is a lot of work and doing that for the first time is pretty stressful. I was happy that I got everything sorted. At least I thought I had everything sorted…including instruments for the band to use when they were here. Robb got in touch with me about a week before the tour saying he had good news, but that he’d probably make my head explode. Another band member could come along, the bass player…but…a bass guitar and an amp were needed… Well…talk about a challenge…where was I supposed to get a good amp and a bass guitar at the very last minute?? Thankfully I had an idea pretty fast and it all got sorted, but it sure was a challenge…

But…back to what I was writing about…reasons why the work I’m doing behind the scenes is giving me so much energy. The many positive things that happen are one reason.
Another positive, is the increasing amount of people who’ve listened to Robb’s music. Even though we know there are a lot of people who will like Robb’s music, the key is to find those people. It’s hard to find them and even harder to get those people to listen to the music. Thankfully, there are a lot of people who do take a couple of minutes to listen to the music and it’s really great to see when they share it on social media. Those people probably don’t have a clue how much it is appreciated, but it is really helpful and great to see people sharing music online.

Another reason is the kindness of the people we’ve met and worked with. From venue owners, to DJ’s, musicians lending their skills, blog writers, promoters, bookers, support acts, people lending us instruments to use while on tour, fans who are spreading the word and people who just give a helping hand. Really great experiences that inspire me and keep me motivated.

And last but not least…it’s fun to do! We laugh a lot and silly things happen a lot. I suggest you just go and check out Robb’s Vine page to see what I’m talking about 😉